There are many instances in which it would be helpful to measure a subject's body remotely, or via non-contact means. In one (non-limiting) example, it would be beneficial to determine a subject's measurements (and therefore garment size(s)) when shopping online, or in other situation where it is not practical or desired to take conventional measurements. It is highly desirable to determine a garment (e.g., shirt, shorts, etc.) size which fits a subject well, which can be difficult when relying on the subject measuring themselves, guessing or requiring manual assistance.
Although techniques for determining a subject's measurements remotely have been proposed by others, such as, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0179288 to Moses et al., such systems and methods are not accurate or (as in the case with U.S. 2013/0179288), require an external reference object to define a scale and to correct distortions in the image acquired by the webcam to determine the subject's measurements. However, external reference items are often inconvenient or not available, and may not be properly positioned or selected by the subject.
Described here are apparatuses (e.g., systems and devices, including computer implemented apparatuses) and methods that address many of these issues. In particular, described herein are apparatuses and methods to evaluate a subject's size on the basis of anthropometric imaging that can be easily performed by any user with a PC/smartphone equipped with a camera/webcam. These apparatuses and methods may automatically scale and measure the subject, and may thereby determine the subject's sizing (e.g., apparel sizes). The apparatuses and methods described herein do not require any external reference object, but may instead uses one or more anthropometric parameters, such as interocular distance (IOD), that can be determined automatically. The inter-subject variability of IOD is very low and therefore should introduce an error (<5%) that is acceptable for the purpose.